O
Doctor! My Doctor! It’s goodbye to Matt Smith and hello to
Doctor PC. I really don’t know how I can
explain the premise. It’s just… first
questions and monsters and Trenzalore, oh my!
If you took snippets from every Eleven episode and stuck them in a
blender, this is what you get.
I’ll do
what I can to keep my remarks spoiler-free.
Grumbles first, so we can move on to the sweeter stuff. I have no great love for flippant
flirtyness/kissyness from the Doctor, and those elements are positive out of
control for chunks of the episode. Too
many bad guys in my opinion, especially since not much new is done with any of
them. I’m still not quite sure what I think
of the plot – parts of it knit together well, but it seems there’s a lot of
sloppiness.
And
now, for the good. Eleven’s exit (yes,
he’s Eleven to me, whatever his technical number may be) is absolutely
lovely. For new Who regenerations, I think Nine’s remains my favorite – this one
was drawn out maybe a bit too long – but it’s miles better than Ten’s. It reminded me in a way of “The Big Bang,”
where Eleven believes he’s going to die and approaches it with grace. Really nice.
Beyond that, there’s a truth field that’s good for some fun (although
the Doctor seems remarkably adept at managing to lie anyway,) and Clara has
some good moments.
So
where do I stand on it? Emotionally strong,
narratively shaky. Some great heartfelt
stuff, and Eleven’s final moments are a beautiful tribute to a wonderful
Doctor, but I feel like Matt Smith deserved a tighter, more cohesive swan song
that doesn’t bend the rules to get where it needs to.
And of
course… new Doctor! The
post-regeneration scene feels very short, but maybe it’s just because he doesn’t
say as much as Ten or Eleven do after regenerating (Eleven in particular was all over the place.) So it’s hard to get much of a feel for
him. He has a Tennish intensity in his
eyes, and he has one of the most original new-body complaints I’ve ever
heard. It seems there might be some big-time regeneration
crisis going on, so we may have to contend with that when series 8 begins.
Accent Watch
The
Scottish is pretty light, I think. Maybe
an even softer version of his own accent.
Recommend?
In
General
– If you’re a Whovian, obviously. If you’re
not, this would make a terrible
virgin episode, since it incorporates basically every Eleventh Doctor plot
ever. Start with “The Eleventh Hour” and
work your way up.
PC-wise – Less than a minute
at the end of an hour-long episode may be a hard sell, but it’s the beginning
of amazing things to come. I recommend
not missing a moment of PC’s Doctor.
Warnings
Sci-fi
violence, general scariness, and implied nudity (don’t ask – seriously.)
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